It’s a common frustration for many Belizeans, being told there’s a minimum purchase to use your card, or worse, being charged extra just to pay with debit or credit. While some businesses argue it offsets transaction fees, the Central Bank says those practices are not only unfair, but they go against the banks’ mission and undermine efforts to make financial services more accessible. Governor Kareem Michael says the issue has persisted for years and now the regulator is working with financial institutions to put an end to what he calls an abuse of consumers.
Kareem Michael
Kareem Michael, Governor, Central Bank of Belize
“This is something that we’ve been battling with for a few years. I have had personal experience where I have went to a grocer and I have purchased maybe nine dollars and there’s a fifteen dollars minimum and they refuse for me to pay with my debit card. And they would only accept cash. Recently I went to the same store, same under fifteen dollars purchase, and now they’re slapping on a one dollar charge to make me use my debit card. The Banker’s Association or and the Central Bank have been brainstorming, if you will, on how to address this issue. And we’ve had very good discussions on what solutions may look like from the very blunt to something more equitable on both sides. What we hope is to find a solution for this in the very future. It is not necessarily that, that we want an entirely cashless society. But for the reasons which you’ve cited, there cannot be price disincentives for the vulnerable members of society. And this is not only about vulnerable members of society, but this is for everyone to not participate in the formal financial sector. So this is one of a few issues that we want to address together with the Bankers Association and also even the credit unions to see how we can stop this abuse from happening cause it’s it is really and truly against our financial inclusion motives.”
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